Ideal Verge - Your Daily Dose of Knowledge and Inspiration.

Axis Mutual Fund has launched an open-ended Gold ETF, Axis Gold ETF. This is yet another Gold ETF similar to already existing Gold Bees and other ETFs. During the new fund offer (NFO) period, retail investors can apply for minimum of Rs.5,000 and multiples of Re.1.

After the NFO period, the fund will be traded on the National Stock Exchange and traded like equity shares. The fund will be open for subscription from October 20 to November 3.

Why Gold ETFs ?

Gold ETFs lets you buy Gold without the necessity of taking physical delivery and without the associated risks of physical storage and impurities.

Is Gold a good investment opportunity even at this prices?

Gold has seen a steady rise since last 5 years with an annualized return of about 24%, currently trading about Rs.2000 per gram. But over 15-20 year period it tends to average less than 10% . Currently high price rise in Gold prices is due to global risk-aversion and supply constraints, as production has dropped.

Is this price rise sustainable and how much one can invest in these funds?

For the past 2 years investments in Gold has yielded more than 50%,  this doesn't mean gold will tend to keep on rising further to get sustainable returns.  Any investment in gold can be considered as an insurance and diversification only.  Therefore investors need not allocate their entire amount or large junk of their portfolio in such Gold Funds. One could invest about 10% of their portfolio only , if they haven't already invested in earlier such schemes.

Coal India Limited, a Navratna PSU, is entering the capital markets with a public issue of 63 crore equity shares. This issue, slated to be the largest primary market offering in the history of the Indian Stock Markets, will garner around Rs. 15,000 crore.

Coal India is the world’s largest coal producing company, as well as the world’s largest coal reserve holder. The company has 471 mines across the country and manages over 80% of India's annual coal demand.

Details of the issue:
Issue Open: Oct 18, 2010 - Oct 21, 2010.
Issue Size: 631,636,440 Equity Shares of Rs. 10.
Face Value: Rs. 10 Per Equity Share.
Issue Price: Rs.225 - Rs.245 Per Equity Share.
Listing At: BSE, NSE.


Fundamental Details:

For FY10, the company reported total income of Rs. 52,592 crore with net profit of Rs. 9,834 crore, resulting in an EPS of Rs. 15.5. Comparing with NMDC, around a P/E of 16-17, the announced price band  of  Rs.225-Rs.245, is a  reasonably good price to invest for long term investors. A 5% discount offered for retail investors could add as an extra cushion factor. Investors can apply for this issue with a long term view and not for listing gains alone.

Both the premier exchanges BSE and NSE are to kick off pre-open call auction section, soon. The pre-open call auction session will be for 15 minutes between 9 am and 9.15 am. The session would work as follows: The first eight minutes will be reserved for order entry, modification and cancellation, the next four minutes will be kept for order matching and trade confirmation. The remaining three minutes will be the buffer period to facilitate the transition from pre-open session to the normal market.

Initially, the call auction session will be applicable for Nifty-50 scrips and Sensex-30 scrips. More scrips will be gradually added to the list. Normal trading in other stocks will begin as at 9.15 am.

What is this pre-open session all about?

Indian markets have seen huge volatility, particularly during open trades. In the past few years, indices have hit the down circuit quite a few times and up circuit once. Call auction at pre-open will help arrive at a proper price, removing volatility and freak trades.

How does this order matching works?

In a Call Auction market, orders are gathered for execution at predetermined times when the market is called. At the call, all buy orders are aggregated into a downward sloping demand function and all sell orders are aggregated in an upward sloping supply function.The logic of order batching which is core to the Call Auction mechanism is well explained here.

Call Auctions across the world have been applied to various sessions during the trading day at the Open, Close and during trading halts. So, hopefully no more freak trades of abnormal highs and lows.

The international derivatives exchange EUREX, jointly operated by Deutsche Bourse AG and SIX Swiss Exchange, organizes markets globally. Since 2007, Deutsche Bourse holds a five percent stake in the Bombay Stock Exchange. EUREX is home to the Euro zone interest rate and equity index benchmark derivatives.

EUREX will be the first exchange to launch Indian equity index futures and options outside India. Offering futures and options on one single platform allows market participants to use combined trading strategies (for example volatility trades) and permits cross margining between the two contracts.

With the launch of SENSEX derivatives EUREX, it provides new opportunities for customers seeking an appropriate hedging tool for Indian exposure or arbitrage trading EUREX SENSEX Futures and Options will be denominated in U.S. dollars and settled in cash.

More details about the contracts are available at Sensex Futures And Options

Eros International Media is entering the capital markets to raise Rs. 350 crore through an issue of 2cr equity shares.The main objective of this issue is for acquiring and co-producing Indian films and general corporate purposes. This company is part of the Eros group which has been in the entertainment business for over three decades.

The company is well poised to tap the opportunity presented by Indian Media and Entertainment Industry driven by rising regionalization and digitization through new distribution platforms like Digital Cable, DTH & IPTV. Distribution and sale of media content online also offers a huge potential for Eros.

Details of the issue:

Face Value: Rs. 10 Per Equity Share.
Issue Price: Rs. 158 - Rs. 175 Per Equity Share.
Market Lot: 40 Shares.
Listing At: BSE, NSE.
Issue Date: Sep 17, 2010 - Sep 21, 2010.

Eros International Media is currently valued at 18 x-19 x on FY10 EPS of Rs 8.8 and Rs 9.1 based on the price band of Rs 158-175, which is cheaper than that of UTV’s 41.6x and Shree Ashtavinayak’s 96.1x FY10 EPS. Considering the future growth prospects of Indian film industry, valuable content library, medium to long term investors can apply for this issue, which could give good listing gains too.

Reliance Mutual Fund launches its Nifty ETF namely Reliance Index Fund - Nifty Plan. We already have Nifty Bees  & other ETFs from leading fund houses and Reliance Mutual Fund is the latest fund to join the bandwagon. As with any other Index Fund, the objective of this fund is to replicate the composition of the Nifty, with a view to generate returns that are commensurate with the performance of the Nifty.

Minimum Investment is Rs.5000 and both Growth & Dividend options are available. The entry load is nil and the scheme will be open till 23 Sep 2010. SIP facility is available with a minimum investment of Rs.500.

Why should one invest in Index Fund?

Index Funds are the simplest of the mutual fund products to understand. S&P CNX Nifty is a true representative of Indian Economy, since the constituents are blue chip companies which are the most liquid and widely owned companies. This scheme provides an opportunity to participate in India's growth story by investing in a well diversified portfolio of 50 stocks.

But investors need to understand that, like any other mutual fund, the performance of the scheme depends on the performance of the Nifty. Hence it would be better to invest through a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) in the Growth Option.This is an open-ended fund and not exactly an ETF. Index Investing is slowly catching up with investors' attraction and it won't be a surprise if see more such funds.

Career Point Infosystems has come out with an IPO of Rs. 115 crores for its expansion plans. The company provides tutorial services for All India pre-medical and pre-dental tests and for engineering, medical entrance exams such as AIEEE, IIT-JEE also.

The company has its presence through 33 centres mainly in North, East and Central India.The main objects of the issue is to meet expenses towards general corporate purposes and to construct and develop an integrated campus facilities.

Details of the issue:

Issue Size: Rs. 115.00 Crore.
Face Value: Rs. 10 Per Equity Share.
Price Band: Rs. 295 - Rs. 310 Per Equity Share.
Market Lot: 20 Shares.
Issue Open: Sep 16, 2010 - Sep 21, 2010.

To invest or not?

The net profit for FY10 was Rs. 18 crore with an EPS of Rs. 13.2 on an equity of Rs. 14.42 crore. The company is expects its business to grow at the rate of 30% with margins of about 33%. There is always a market fancy for education stocks and also, the company has allotted 6.56 lakh shares to anchor investors at Rs 310 a share, which is at the higher price band.

All these things make this IPO interesting which would give listing gains as well as for holding medium term to long term.